Lin Zhu,1,* Feiyong Jia,2,* Aihua Cao,3,* Yan Hao,4 Fei Li,5 Ruizhuo Liu,6 Honghua Li,2 Xiaoxiao Yu,3 Jinzhu Zhao,4 Feng Li,5 Yu Zhang,1 Yang Yu,1 Hua Wei,1 Ying Dai,1 Xuan Zhang,1 Xiao Liu,1 Bin Peng,7 Tingyu Li,1 Li Chen1 

1Growth, Development and Mental Health Center of Children and Adolescents, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Child Neurodevelopment and Cognitive Disorders, Chongqing, 400014, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatric, the First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Pediatrics, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, 250012, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Pediatrics, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, People’s Republic of China; 5Developmental and Behavioral Pediatric Department, Brain and Behavioral Research Unit of Shanghai Institute for Pediatric Research and Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory for Children’s Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200092, People’s Republic of China; 6The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu, Chengdu, 610017, People’s Republic of China; 7College of Public Health, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 401331, People’s Republic of China

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Correspondence: Li Chen, Growth, Development and Mental Health Center of Children and Adolescents, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Child Neurodevelopment and Cognitive Disorders, No. 136, Zhongshan 2nd Road, Yuzhong District, Chongqing, 400014, People’s Republic of China, Email chenli@cqmu.edu.cn

Purpose: There is no consensus on whether cognitive measures among attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) subtypes exhibit more similarities or differences, and most of them have been conducted on English-speaking subjects, lacking cross-cultural perspectives. The present study was aimed at investigating the intelligence structures of school-age children with ADHD who speak Chinese, using a multicenter and large sample size approach, offering some references for clinicians.
Patients and Methods: 772 children aged 6 to 12 years with ADHD took part in the cross-sectional study. All participants underwent the Chinese Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition assessment. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Statistics 24 was used for statistical analyses.
Results: No significant differences were found in full intelligence quotient (FIQ), verbal IQ (VIQ), performance quotient (PIQ), as well as most subtest scores among ADHD subtypes. The analysis of variance showed that the boys’ scores were higher than girls’ scores in PIQ (P < 0.05), information (P < 0.01), vocabulary (P < 0.05) and block design (P< 0.01) from the perspective of sex, but lower in the coding (P < 0.01). From the perspective of age, the senior group (aged 9– 12) scored higher in block design (P < 0.01) and object assembly (P < 0.05) than the junior one (aged 6– 8), but lower in VIQ (P < 0.05) and verbal comprehension (VC) factor.
Conclusion: Our study supported that ADHD substyles shared more similarities in intelligence structures. Boys outperformed girls in PIQ and some subtests, suggesting that the importance to consider the gender differences and the distribution of intellectual strengths and weaknesses. Older children outperformed in block design and object assembly, but underperformed in VIQ and VC factor. This indicated the need to focus on language development and screen for specific learning disabilities in managing school-age children with ADHD.

Keywords: school-age children, ADHD, intelligence structures, intellectual strengths and weaknesses, language development